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About this project

About North Knife

I am an independent producer and writer for Public Radio
International’s Living on Earth,
which is heard on more than 300 Public Radio stations (80% of the NPR market). This
August, I have a-once-in-a-lifetime chance to take my sound gear and my cameras
to Hudson Bay and head out, on foot, among
polar bears at the mouth of the Seal River; don a drysuit and swim frigid water to find beluga whales; walk
the tundra among caribou, nesting ptarmigan, arctic foxes; search for wild
wolves in the deep woods of North Knife Lake.

Perhaps the most important thing I will do in the arctic will be the time I spend with Inuit hunters in and around the far north community of Arviat. The relationship between traditional hunters and their prey is as important a part of the picture as anything else. Inuit lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years, exterminating not a single thing. These are the people to whom the land belongs. They know it and the wildlife there better than anyone does or ever will. It is their perspective I want to reveal.

I will return with enough photography and sound to write, produce and record at least 6 radio segments for national distribution.

Why this fieldwork is different, and important

What I do is different from most wildlife programming. The camera is my notebook. Image is the raw material for what I
do, not the end product. High-speed stills allow me to record what the human
eye is too slow, and the video camera (contrary to what you might expect) too
superficial to see. My true work is my writing, and my on air
performance of that written work.

If fully funded, the expedition will take place August 2011
in the midst of that brief period above latitude 58 degrees when the tundra is
in flower and open water is ice-free. It will be a chance to catch a glimpse of
what the arctic may look like all the time within another couple of decades,
which almost automatically raises questions of what will and will not be able to survive. There is a real question of whether the remaining Inuit can survive the coming change.

But it is not my
job to bring you the dark and dire. You can get that anywhere. What you will be hard-pressed to find
is the visceral, emotive experience of what it is like to be in eye contact
with wild places and the wild things that live there – things most people never
get to see. It is my job - on the broad shoulders of my words and the images and sounds
I record - to carry you there with me. With your assistance, that is exactly
what I am going to deliver.

In the end it is all and only about eye contact. If you aren't face to face with wildlife there is no hope of real understanding. To know me look me in the eye. That message extends to everything that has a face and this knowing is what I strive to acquire and what I intend to share, with you.

Project Almost Completely Funded

On the strength of my past body of work, Churchill Wild, the premier wildlife company in Hudson Bay (and the only people who can put you on the ground with polar bears), is providing the guides I will need to keep me safe and to get me where I have to go. Churchill Wild is also covering all my in-country expenses, which are substantial, and is arranging transport to the Inuit community at Arviat.

However, there are critical costs that remain and these are not yet covered. Living on Earth has no production budget, no travel budget, no seed money to give me. I always find myself scrambling and this time especially, to cross that last piece of ground, to get me to Hudson Bay with the additional equipment I have to have, I need your participation and your help.

Here’s what I’ve already raised for this trip (more than 85%)
and what I’m asking you to provide.
I’ve tapped every resource I have, so your help is very real, and
necessary.

What I already have:

Equipment

- All
sound gear, camera gear, tripods, long lenses except as noted under “What I
Need”

NOTE: Kickstarter does not allow goal reductions. I STILL need to raise $8,625 to fund this project. Excess funds will now go to post production and my next project and toward a new premium for all contributors of $25 and above. Please see Update #3.

Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated. Please email me at MSL@MarkSethLender.com. And thanks for "Breaking the Ice!"

FAQ

Have a question?
If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.

Rewards

Pledge $1 or more

Membership in the Arctic Circle, which entitles you to email notification of my posts to the photographic trip blog, direct from Hudson Bay, and my sincere thanks. Every single contribution counts.

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Pledge $10 or more

4 backers

Membership in the Arctic Circle, plus your name on my website donor list (if you don’t want your name shown you can be listed as “Anonymous.”).

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Pledge $25 or more

7 backers

Download of the long version of my audio recording of Allen’s Hummingbirds roosting in a eucalyptus grove on Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park, plus everything above.

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Pledge $75 or more

5 backers

Signed copy of my new book of wildlife writings, Salt Marsh Diary, a year on the Connecticut Coast, personalized thank-you e-postcard with a large JPEG image of one of my photographs, plus everything above. [International donors please contact me for shipping costs]

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Pledge $100 or more

4 backers

The 4 X 4: Four of my 4-sided full color postcards, with a close sequence of 4 images of a mountain bluebird landing (the sequence in the video in this funding request), plus everything above. [International donors, please contact me for shipping costs]